How we have achieved success in the BNO scheme expansion campaign
Following our advocacy work, on 24 February 2022, the UK government announced its plan to expand the BNO visa scheme for young Hong Kongers born on or after 1 July 1997 with a BNO parent from October 2022 onwards. It has been nearly two years since we started making this call and after lots of advocacy work with parliamentarians, journalists and other stakeholders, our call has finally brought about significant policy changes.
Here is the story behind our success in the BNO scheme expansion campaign.
Hong Kong Watch has been campaigning for the rights of BNOs since our founding in late 2017. Our founding patron Lord Ashdown argued back in November 2017 that if conditions in the city worsened BNOs deserved the right of abode in the UK, and two other Patrons, Lord Alton and Lord Patten, also pursued this call from the start.
Our founding patron Lord Ashdown delivered a speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in November 2017 and argued that if conditions in the city worsened, BNOs deserved the right of abode in the UK. (Photo source: Hong Kong Free Press/ Handout)
Throughout 2019 and in the run up to the imposition of the draconian National Security Law, we worked with parliamentarians to pressure the Government to uphold BNOs rights to work and live in the UK.
Following the introduction of the BNO scheme in July 2020, we were aware that a lot of young Hong Kongers, who fought bravely in the frontline during the pro-democracy movement, did not hold BNO status and were in desperate needs for a lifeline. Since then, we have been working closely with parliamentarians, the Home Office and the Home Secretary, civil society and the media to urge the UK government to adopt lifeboat policies for young Hong Kongers born after 1997.
Over the last two years, we have briefed over a hundred parliamentarians and I personally gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the need to expand the BNO scheme to young Hong Kongers. In November 2021, we began building a parliamentary coalition to amend the Nationality and Borders Bill to expand the BNO scheme to cover those born after 1997. We also worked closely with Damian Green MP to help draft his cross-party amendment.
On the government front, we met privately and regularly with Home Office officials and in November 2020 briefed the UK Home Secretary at a private roundtable on the need to expand the BNO scheme to assist young vulnerable Hong Kongers.
Along the way, we understood that solid research and evidence was needed to build the foundation of this campaign. That is why in June 2021, we published a research paper identifying that the 18-24-year-old group were left out from the BNO visa scheme despite being heavily involved in the pro-democracy protest and most vulnerable to arrest under the National Security Law.
In November 2021, we published a further report which revealed that 93% of defendants who faced charges related to the anti-extradition law protests were born in or after 1997, highlighting the urgent need of these youngsters for a lifeline. This research was widely quoted in the UK press and in the parliamentary debates pushing the BNO scheme to be expanded.
We also used our position to promote the voices of vulnerable young Hong Kongers, including those stuck in the UK asylum system, making them the centre of this campaign. We regularly connected young Hong Kongers with journalists, such as those from the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian, BBC, ITN and GB News, who reported their stories and made the case to expand the scheme to help them.
In December 2021, Damian Green MP, supported by other former Conservative government ministers and a group of cross-party members of parliament, tabled an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill which would enable Hong Kongers born after 1997 to apply for the BNO visa scheme. We worked with Damian Green MP every step of the way to build up support for his amendment and to expand the parliamentary, civil society, and press coalition which pushed for this change to the BNO scheme.
On 10 February 2022, Hong Kong Watch’s Patron Lord Alton of Liverpool, alongside Lord Patten of Barnes, one of Hong Kong Watch’s other patrons and the last British Governor of Hong Kong, tabled Damian Green MP’s amendment in the House of Lords and led the debate for amending the BNO scheme.
In a speech in the House of Lords debate, Lord Patten of Barnes, said:
“Every one of my successors as Chief Executive of Hong Kong had a British passport ... and the ones who are being locked up don't… What we've seen in Xinjiang is wicked, what we've seen in Tibet is wicked, what is happening in Hong Kong - the destruction of a free city, one of the great free cities in the world - I think that's wrong and we should say it's wrong".
Following the debate session and our ongoing advocacy work, on 24 February 2022 the UK government finally announced its plan to expand the BNO scheme to young Hong Kongers born on or after 1 July 1997 with a BNO parent in October 2022.